Abstract
Tropical forests are known for their high diversity. Yet, forest patches do occur in the tropics where a single tree species is dominant. Such "monodominant" forests are known from all of the main tropical regions. For Amazonia, we sampled the occurrence of monodominance in a massive, basin-wide database of forest-inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network (ATDN). Utilizing a simple defining metric of at least half of the trees ≥ 10 cm diameter belonging to one species, we found only a few occurrences of monodominance in Amazonia, and the phenomenon was not significantly linked to previously hypothesized life history traits such wood density, seed mass, ectomycorrhizal associations, or Rhizobium nodulation. In our analysis, coppicing (the formation of sprouts at the base of the tree or on roots) was the only trait significantly linked to monodominance. While at specific locales coppicing or ectomycorrhizal associations may confer a considerable advantage to a tree species and lead to its monodominance, very few species have these traits. Mining of the ATDN dataset suggests that monodominance is quite rare in Amazonia, and may be linked primarily to edaphic factors.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 13822 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-15 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Scientific Reports |
| Volume | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 25 Sept 2019 |
Funding
This paper is the result of the work of hundreds of different scientists and research institutions in the Amazon over the past 80 years. Without their hard work this analysis would have been impossible. We thank Charles Zartman for the use of plots from Jutai. HtS and RS were supported by grant 407232/2013-3 - PVE - MEC/ MCTI/CAPES/CNPq/FAPs; CB was supported by grant FAPESP 95/3058-0 - CRS 068/96 WWF Brasil - The Body Shop; DS, JFM, JE, PP and JC benefited from an “Investissement d’Avenir” grant managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (CEBA: ANR-10-LABX-25-01); Floristic identification in plots in the RAINFOR forest monitoring network have been supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (grants NE/B503384/1, NE/ D01025X/1, NE/I02982X/1, NE/F005806/1, NE/D005590/1 and NE/I028122/1) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; B.M.F. is funded by FAPESP grant 2016/25086-3. The 25-ha Long-Term Ecological Research Project of Amacayacu is a collaborative project of the Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas Sinchi and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Medellín, in parternship with the Unidad de Manejo Especial de Parques Naturales Nacionales and the Center for Tropical Forest Science of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (CTFS). The Amacayacu Forest Dynamics Plot is part of the Center for Tropical Forest Science, a global network of large-scale demographic tree plots. We acknowledge the Director and staff of the Amacayacu National Park for supporting and maintaining the project in this National Park. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful, constructive comments.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| CTFS | |
| Center for Tropical Forest Science of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute | |
| Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas Sinchi | |
| Unidad de Manejo Especial de Parques Naturales Nacionales | |
| WWF Brasil - The Body Shop | |
| National Science Foundation | 1836353 |
| Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation | 2016/25086-3 |
| Natural Environment Research Council | NE/D005590/1, NE/I028122/1, NE/ D01025X/1, NE/B503384/1, NE/F005806/1, NE/I02982X/1 |
| Agence Nationale de la Recherche | ANR-10-LABX-25-01 |
| Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo | 95/3058-0 - CRS 068/96 |
| Universidad Nacional de Colombia |
